JWP hears bad news from auditor

During their regular monthly meeting on Dec. 15, members of the Janesville-Waldorf-Pemberton (JWP) school board heard an audit summary from Greg Burkhardt of the Burkhardt accounting firm of Mankato. Looking at numbers from the 2024-25 school year, he reported the district’s “unrestricted fund balance,” the amount of money school districts keep on hand in case of any type of income shortfall, shrank by $1.3 million.

 

During his presentation, he pointed out that, in violation of the district’s policy that the unrestricted fund balance should be maintained at about 25% of the annual budget, the $700,000 currently remaining equal about 6 percent.

 

Showing a chart which represented balances over the past five years, Burkhardt said, “It was really the last two fiscal years that have had a pretty negative impact on those fund balances and your cash balances overall.” 

 

Acknowledging that the district is receiving less income from the state because of lower enrollment numbers, he pointed out that expenditures in fiscal year 2025 were $956,000 over budget. He went on to say, “I don’t believe that's something that can continue, given the level of fund balance that you have at the end of last year.

 

Burkhardt acknowledged $350,000 committed to lease Chromebook computers had not actually been spent, but had to be registered as an expense under the standards of the audit process.  

 

With that taken into consideration, the “over budget” expenditures could be viewed as being more like $600,000. 

 

Burkhardt went on to report that expenditures for fiscal year 2025 were 6 percent higher than they had been in 2024.  He attributed part of the increase to “significant capital expenditures in the kitchen.”

 

Burkhardt recommended that future budgets use predicted student enrollment as a fundamental element, since district income from the state is based on “average daily membership” (ADM), which is the typical number of students present in the school on any given school day. 

 

Early in the meeting, school board members recognized that their bowling team took fourth place at the state tournament on Nov. 22 and Kayla Wheelock had broken a school record broke a school record the other night with eight three’s. The members also wanted to observe and give prayers to the families and students at Stewartville High School over the past weekend.

 

JWP school board also accepted and approved donations of $544 from the Janesville Preschool for a storage unit and $1,000 from JWP Softball to update softball dugouts.

In other matters, the school board approved the levy certification.

 

The school board approved a two-year cooperative agreement between JWP and WEM for boys’ and girls’ track and field.